After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Ma'erpo is over a hundred feet long and only four feet wide. The trees on both sides have been cut down, and the slope is extremely steep. Even horses with hooves nailed to their feet have difficulty standing on it. If they are not careful, they will fall to the bottom of the cliffs on both sides.

The bandits of Black Tiger Stronghold usually lay dozens of long wooden planks on the slope and throw down hemp ropes to make it easy to pull themselves up and down. At this chaotic moment, the planks and hemp ropes were naturally taken back, and the soil and fine sand on the slope were exposed.

The villagers shouted all sorts of nonsense and cursed all sorts of things as they carried water over. As soon as the buckets were overturned, the icy mountain water gushed down the long slope, making it slippery.

This long slope is the only road leading to the top of the mountain. In the past, when government troops came to attack, if it was just a small skirmish, they would often turn back halfway up the mountain. Even if they were attacked by high-ranking officials, they were not afraid. Ma'er Slope was a natural barrier that government troops could not break through!

The logs and boulders pushed down, and the hundreds of pounds of weight rolled down like a giant bear with the momentum of the descent. Even the most orderly military formation would be smashed to pieces by this giant bear, and the unfortunate soldiers on both sides would often be squeezed and fall off the cliff with a scream.

After leaving behind a hundred or so corpses, the officers and soldiers had to sound the retreat.

Even if the soldiers were ruthless enough, and after exhausting all the logs and stones in the village, they would still be a weary army when they stormed Ma'erpo. They would be unable to bring siege equipment, unable to breach the village gates, and would be harvested like grass by the village.

But today is different...

Today... the village gate is broken.

With no way out, we have no choice but to grit our teeth and hold Ma'erpo to the death today.

However, there was no rush. The government troops had been attacking the mountain for two hours. Although the fighting below was deafening and many brothers in the stronghold had been killed, including several leaders, the government troops' momentum had been repeatedly repelled.

The chief brought out the silver and declared that after this battle, the brothers still in the stronghold would divide the gold and silver among themselves and drink a toast of unity. Besides that, everyone was entitled to a trip to the Joyful Cave! Regardless of whether they were leaders or not! Everyone would have made a great contribution!

If any bird egg manages to cut off the head of a soldier, then that bird egg can be given a young woman as its wife!

The thought of the fair-skinned young woman inside sent a rush of blood through everyone's veins!

In such an imposing village.

Meng Hao summoned several of his trusted lieutenants and calmly explained the situation to them.

"Hold Ma'erpo," he said in a deep voice.

"Many government troops will die at Ma'erpo in their attempt to storm the village... three times, I suppose..." Meng Hao pondered for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "If we repel them three times at Ma'erpo, and these birds still neither surrender nor retreat after so many deaths..."

A fierce look appeared on his face. "Then let's push all the logs and boulders in the village down! Then the brothers from the village will charge down in one wave!"

The trusted confidants, all seasoned thieves, couldn't help but show worry upon hearing this.

"Brother," the old thief said urgently, frowning, using a form of address he hadn't used in years, "the government troops are incredibly fierce this time. Even Changtiao and Bamianjin crawled back covered in blood just now. All the brothers were wiped out, and Bamianjin even lost three fingers. Even if we wipe out half the government troops, we might not be able to break through their formation!"

The other old thieves, their eyes red and teeth clenched, nodded.

Meng Hao shook his head, glanced at his brothers who were busy boiling broth in a large pot not far away, and pondered for a moment.

Without the gate, the already simple city wall was also mostly destroyed by the thunderous bomb, and there was no time to repair it.

At this point, boiling the molten gold is useless. You can't just pour it on Ma'erpo. It won't do much good and will also cut off your own escape route.

The reason we made the brothers do all these messy things was that there were too many people, seven or eight hundred, but few useful things to do. If we didn't assign them anything to do, they would inevitably start having wild thoughts and wanting to run away when they were idle.

The boiling excrement, known as "golden juice," has an extremely unpleasant odor when it's bubbling, but at this time, it becomes a powerful tool to calm people's hearts!

Meng Hao took a breath and calmly addressed the group, "When the time comes—" He lightly patted one of the old thieves on the shoulder, "Old Eight, you stay here and take Changtiao, Bamianjin, and the other brothers to cover our retreat... I'll take..."

Meng Hao raised an eyebrow and gestured to the other three old thieves: "Jiang Bao, you guys, charge down the mountain, straight to the heart of the matter, and capture the commander of the government troops here... Who knows, maybe that damn governor is here too, otherwise the government troops wouldn't be fighting so hard this time... If I catch that dog governor, then... this will be a real problem!" Meng Hao stared at Lao Ba with a glint in his eyes!

Jiang Bao and the other old thieves' expressions changed. One of them opened his mouth, about to speak, but Jiang Bao suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

The eighth brother, his eyes gleaming with excitement, cried out, "Big Brother!"

Before he could finish speaking, Meng Hao pressed his large hand down on Lao Ba's shoulder: "Lao Ba!" he said in a deep voice, "Once this problem is resolved, your wife and children in Linjia Fishing Village should be coming to the village! Your sister-in-law gave birth to twins for you last year, they're so chubby. I was very happy when I saw them last month, and I even gave each of my nephews a pair of longevity locks..."

Lao Ba's flushed face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Big brother..." He gritted his teeth, glanced at Meng Hao, and felt a chill in his heart when he saw his brother's cold gaze. He then turned to look at Jiang Bao and the others... Jiang Bao and the others immediately lowered their eyes and refused to look at him.

A little blood seeped from between his teeth, but Lao Ba's complexion returned to its rosy hue. He bowed deeply, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "Big brother, big brother... don't worry! Leave everything to Lao Ba!"

"Good brother!" Meng Hao smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

At this moment, a scout came to report that the government troops had annihilated the more than one hundred leaders of Master Lu, and even put Master Lu's head on a bamboo pole before marching to Ma'erpo!

The bandits immediately cried out in alarm, brandishing their weapons and cursing the officials and the governor.

Lu Laoqi is dead too… Meng Hao’s eyes darkened. He composed himself, gathered his thoughts, then chuckled and let out a loud, heroic roar, using his inner strength to proclaim:

"Brothers, more reckless government troops have arrived at Ma'erpo! What should we do?"

The eighth brother tensed his arms, his expression fierce, and roared with inner strength, "Make their son wear mourning clothes like his mother!"

"Wear linen and wear filial piety!——"

"Wear linen and wear filial piety!——"

A deafening roar, brimming with bloodlust and banditry, echoed from the mountaintop! The brothers' morale soared!

Seeing the seven hundred brothers remaining on the mountaintop, united in spirit and fierce in demeanor, like a pack of wolves facing the moon.

Meng Hao and Jiang Bao, along with a few other old thieves, exchanged glances, their eyes filled with relief.

With brothers like these, repelling the government troops three times at Ma'erpo wouldn't be difficult. Then, we'd launch a fierce attack, follow the chief, and fight our way down the mountain... retreat to the lake... one day, we'd recruit soldiers and horses, and come back to wipe out every last one of the three county garrisons! To avenge the blood feud of our brothers today!

"kill!"

"kill!"

"kill!"

Attack and defense were launched simultaneously. The bandits on the slope and the soldiers below were practically screaming blood from their throats.

Under the command of their leaders, the bandits on the slope pushed the log down with a mighty shove!

The log then rolled and tumbled downwards.

Rolling down the long slope—

"boom--!"

It slammed violently into the shields of the front-line shield bearers!

With a "pfft," the shieldbearer in the front row coughed up blood. If it weren't for the spiked boots on his feet, this impact would have been enough to break the formation!

The second rank of spearmen gritted their teeth, raised their spearheads, and plunged them into the soil beneath the log to block it. The sergeant roared, "Left!" and all the spearmen lifted the log off the cliff.

At this point, the shield bearers in the third row will move up and replace the shield bearers in the first row who have been subjected to the force.

The shield bearers in the first row will keep retreating until they reach the back of the formation...

At the foot of Ma'er Slope, Ning Nan squinted, staring at the rolling logs and boulders as he calculated... The higher he went, the narrower the path became. After climbing about a third of the way up, the number of shield soldiers standing in one row would decrease, and it would have to be changed to two rows of shield soldiers and one row of spearmen, otherwise one row of shield soldiers would not be able to withstand the impact.

He climbed about halfway up the hill, at which point the distance the log and the rolling stone had fallen was halved... Hmm... He frowned. What's that called in physics again?

Kinetic energy, it seems... Ning Nan wiped the sweat from his forehead... With reduced kinetic energy, the logs' power also decreases. He could switch to a row of shields and two rows of guns to clear obstacles faster and increase the ascent speed... until they reached two-thirds of the way up...

It could be changed to a row of shields, a row of spears, and a row of bows... The kinetic energy of the falling logs would be less, and the shield bearers could withstand it... Hmm, the archers could go up... The mountaintop would be within the archers' firing range... Even if it wasn't, a volley of arrows would terrify them to death...

"once."

Ning Nan rubbed his wrists and muttered something under his breath... Then, with a cold face, he ordered the messengers to prepare to relay the order and change formation... "One time... we will break through Black Tiger Mountain in one go!"